Tulane (3-1) improves to 3-0 at home this season and has won its last seven straight decisions at home against non-league opponents, while Albany State (1-1), who is coached by former Green Wave star Chris Cameron, suffered its first loss of the year.
Richard exploded out of the gates with seven points in the first five minutes. With Tulane leading 12-8, Richard's three-pointer gave TU a seven-point lead, but more importantly sparked a 13-2 run. By the time Albany State's Sean Glenn hit short jumper at the 7:50 mark to snap the spurt, the Wave had built a 15-point cushion.

When Richard went to the bench for a breather, senior Robinson Louisme picked up the slack and scored 13 points in the first half. Tulane's smothering defense stifled the Golden Rams, limiting them to a 30.8 percent effort from the field in the opening period, while Tulane torched the nets by hitting 53.3 percent of its attempts.

Junior Eric Vianney nailed a trey from the top of the key with 1:57 remaining in the first half to give the Wave a 23-point advantage, its largest of the opening period, and Tulane led 44-23 at intermission.

"This was a good win for us tonight," Tulane head coach Dave Dickerson said. "We saw a lot of players at different positions and it was really good. There are some things we definitely have to work on. I thought our defensive intensity was very lackluster in the second half, and we are still trying to build an identity for this team. But, I thought for the most part we defended and rebounded well, but we still have to do much better."

Albany State's shooting improved in the second half, but TU continued to sizzle with a 50-percent effort from the field. The Golden Rams did manage to climb to within 18 points on a three-pointer from James Clark near the midway point, but a pair of free throws from Tulane freshman Kendall Timmons extended the Green Wave's lead back to 20 points, where TU remained for the rest of the game. Timmons gave Tulane its largest lead of the game when he nailed two foul shots to put the Wave up by 30 points with 0:33 remaining in the contest.

Along with Richard, Louisme finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Timmons came off the bench and contributed a career-high 13 points, hitting 4-of-5 field goal attempts and converting 5-of-6 free throw attempts. Junior Kevin Sims was steady as usual, posting his third straight game in double figures with 12 points and also added a season- and game-high eight assists.

"Kris had 10 of our first 15 points and I thought he and Robbie's (Robinson) scoring were huge. Kendall Timmons scoring off the bench was also huge, but I am more concerned about how we defend and how hard we play and those are two situations we will have to continue to work on," Dickerson said.

The Green Wave dominated the paint, outscoring the Golden Rams, 42-22, and out-rebounding its opposition, 44-31. The TU bench came up big as well with seven different players combining for 35 points.

Clark and Scheraun King each scored 18 points to lead the Golden Rams.

Tulane returns to action this Friday-Saturday, Nov. 28-29 at the USA Basketball Classic in Mobile, Ala. The Green Wave opens the tournament against UC-Davis at 5 p.m. on Nov. 28, and will play either South Alabama or Maine the following day at 5 or 7 p.m.